James Cloonan
From the University of Chicago, James B. Cloonan earned his MBA. At Northwestern University he furthered his education and received a B.A., and Ph.D. Cloonan helped found Heinold Securities, a brokerage firm specializing in options in 1974 where he also served as CEO. In 1978, after selling his interest in Heinold Securities, he started the preliminary work that led to the founding of the American Association of Individual Investors (AAII) where he is currently chairman.
For the AAII Journal, Cloonan writes the Model Portfolios column. Furthermore, he has authored articles and books on investing and manages and created the Model Shadow Stock Portfolio, which over the past 23 years, has realized an annualized return of over 15%.
Cloonan has served on several industry and regulatory panels, including the New York Stock Exchange Individual Investors Advisory Committee, the Consumer Advisory Council of the National Futures Association, the NASD Special Committee on the Quality of Markets, the Advisory Panel on Securities Markets and Information Technology of the Congressional Office of Technology Assessment, the New York Stock Exchange Panel on Market Volatility and Investor Confidence, the Chicago Mercantile Exchange Financial Instruments Advisors Committee, and The Consumer Affairs Advisory Committee of the Securities and Exchange Commission.